In Braceforce Warehousing Ltd –v- Mediterranean Shipping Company (UK) Ltd [2009] EWHC 3839 (QB) the English High Court’s Justice Ramsay suggested, in dicta, that the limitation legislation had nothing to say about when a contractual alternative dispute resolution scheme may be commenced.  In this case, it was an expert determination clause.  Drafters of such clauses [...]

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From the point early on in my career when I thought I learnt that a judgment was good for 15 years until Marcellous’s comment the other day, I laboured under a misapprehension. In fact, according to the Full Federal Court in Dennehy v Reasonable Endeavours Pty Ltd [2003] FCAFC 158; (2003) 130 FCR 494, there [...]

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Here it is.  The abstract of the article of greatest interest is as follows: ‘When he delivered his judgment in Pritchard Joyce & Hinds v Batcup [2008] EWHC 20 (QB) Underhill J said that he had striven to avoid hindsight and had reminded himself that the central issue he had to decide was whether any [...]

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I posted about this issue, as it arose in a 2007 decision of Justice Forrest, here. Since May 2003, certain Victorian actions for personal injury must be brought within 3 years after the injury was discovered to be attributable to the defendant’s negligence, or 12 years after the allegedly negligence conduct, whichever comes first.  Previously [...]

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Personal injuries guru recently turned Supreme Court judge, Justice Forrest, declined an application for an extension of time in which to bring an action for negligence against a cruise line. The case was Gordon v Norwegian Capricorn Line (Australia) Pty Ltd [2007] VSC 517. His Honour said the case against the cruise line was a [...]

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A Melbourne lawyer has written a book about a landmark Melbourne case. Michelle Schwarz’s A Question of Power; The Geoff Clark Case has just been published by Morrie Schwarz’s Black Inc which also publishes The Monthly and Quarterly Essay. Judging by the ‘top articles this month’ panel, there is a huge thirst out there for [...]

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Update, 20 November 2008: The latest decision is Pegasus Management Holdings S.C.A. v Ernst & Young (a firm) [2008] EWHC 2720 (Ch).  A CMS Cameron McKenna Law Now note may be read here. Original post: The Law Institute is putting on a lecture at lunchtime on 24 June 2008 by an ex-megafirms lawyer who has [...]

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I was already a fan of the first edition of Judge Stephen Walmsley SC, Alister Abadee, and Ben Zipser‘s excellent Professional Liability in Australia, published by Thomson, and had been waiting for the new edition with interest. I got myself a copy the other day. It’s good, and there are substantial additions since the first [...]

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In Ralph Cosentino v MY [2007] VCAT 1319, Member Butcher continued a tradition of statutory interpretation of a little technical provision about when service of statutory notices is effective. That tradition, of the Legal Profession Tribunal and its predecessors, has always troubled me. Though it does not seem to have been cited by counsel,  a [...]

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On Friday, the High Court published a near unanimous judgment in Commonwealth of Australia v Cornwell [2007] HCA 16 on the accrual of a cause of action for negligence in which pure economic loss was claimed. I am yet to read the judgment properly, however it is apparent that a cause of action in negligence [...]

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